
Arguably the most significant and impactful event of the Brezhnev era was the legalization of the production of blue jeans (jk). Though many universities and workplaces had previously forbidden the wearing of jeans, the USSR embraced the denim craze, commissioning the companies Levi Strauss, Wrangler, and Lee to manufacture jeans in the Soviet Union in 1979. This […]

One of the most noteworthy aspects of everyday Soviet life was the nature of their homes. While Westerners normally lived in single family houses and apartments, only about a third of Soviet families lived in single family homes. Just over half of the Soviet population lived in apartments, and about half of that portion lived in communal […]

Though Khrushchev’s Thaw brought about significant political and social changes in Russia, many academics and scientists continued to view the Soviet bureaucracy as an impediment to their work. With newfound political freedom and a re-emphasis on technological advancement, Soviet scientists looked for ways to organize themselves into a physically close community in order to be able […]

During Russia’s Great Patriotic War, films about the war effort dominated Russia’s film industry. With the majority of film production safely moved to Kazakhstan, the studios began to release war films to rally the Soviet people, and many of these focused on the partisan war effort. The role of women in the partisan war effort was […]
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